Out of the Darkness
by ohmytheon
Summary: It's quite simple: Riza was kidnapped. It's not quite simple: Roy saves her.


**Author's Notes:** I've been writing too much fluff recently, so it's all aboard the Angst Train with this one. Oooh, this was a good prompt for that. Fair warning: this is short but dark, but it ends on a hopeful note.

 **Disclaimer:** Still don't own shit.

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The stone floor was cold and wet, both with dirty water and congealed blood. God only knew how many of her wounds were infected. It wasn't like they were in the business of keeping her healthy in the midst of interrogating and torturing her. She couldn't have said how long she had been in here, only that it had felt like ages. Her clothes were torn and dirty, her back entirely exposed. It left her feeling raw and vulnerable with no way to protect herself.

There was darkness and then there was a burst of light, so bright that it had her squeezing her eyes shut and shying her head away. She tried to crawl away, but there was nowhere for her to go, not with the chain around her neck and wrists. After being in the dark for so long, the light burned her eyes even though they were closed, but she could do nothing to shield them with her wrists bound and chained underneath her.

The second she felt hands on her shoulders, she cried out and tried to jerk away despite the pain that jolted through her body, but then there was a familiar voice ringing in her ear, "It's okay! It's okay! It's me. It's just me. You're okay. You're safe now."

And Riza finally broke.

Tears stung Riza's eyes and slipped out from underneath her eyelids and down her cheeks. Snot and tears covered her face, but she didn't care. She was covered in grime, dirt, and blood. None of that mattered. She hated crying in front of people, but after holding herself back for so long and hiding inside of herself, she let the damn break and a river of emotions overwhelmed her. She could allow herself to be weak now. She could let herself be open with him, if only for a moment.

He unlocked the chains around her with a key that he must've taken from one of the kidnappers. Her neck and wrists immediately ached with relief as the weight was taken off of her. She felt herself being carefully pulled up into the sitting position. Her entire body screamed against the action, but it had to be done. As she did, the crying began to slow, even if the tears didn't stop. When she finally managed to drag her eyes open, she found herself looking at a blurry Roy Mustang with his face in darkness while light from outside her cell shined behind him. Her vision adjusted to the new light so that she could see her clearer.

Seeing him now felt like a punch to the gut, something of which she'd experienced a handful of times while she'd been held captive. There was a hard edge to his jaw as he clenched his teeth. He was doing his best to keep a passive expression on his face, but it was impossible to keep how he felt out of his eyes. They were filled with swirls of grief, pain, relief, and rage. She reached out to touch his face, blood staining his pale cheeks, and stared at him.

There wasn't a single wall between them now. There was only them.

 _I know those eyes,_ she thought and then she took a shuddering breath.

Roy brushed her hair out of her face, though he could just barely tuck it behind her ear. She had grown it back out so that it had reached her shoulders, but they had sloppily chopped it. He ran a hand down her hair, smoothing it against her hair, feeling for any bumps. There was too much blood pooled around them, but none had come from a wound to her head at least.

"Who did this to you?" Roy asked her in a pained whisper.

Riza closed her eyes and turned her face away from him, but leaned forward so that she could rest her cheek against his shoulder. She couldn't say. They'd never let her see their faces. She could only remember them by their voices. It was how she had known that it wasn't one of her kidnappers come to get her the second Roy had spoken, though she would've recognized his voice anywhere. She should've known his touch, but she'd been too lost in her own head.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Roy mumbled. He ran a finger delicately down her back where more scars had joined the burns that he had created, causing her to shiver involuntarily. This was the touch that she had come to know. He wore his ignition gloves yet she could still feel and know it was him. Maybe even more so because he was wearing them.

The alchemist in the kidnappers' employ had been particularly brutal with the transmutation on her back. He hadn't been gentle at all. He had traced it over her back, the pen digging into her skin, and his questions had been even sharper. She couldn't have answered him even if she wanted to, knowing next to nothing about the alchemy that her father had entrusted her with. Only Roy knew the full extent and they hadn't been able to capture him when they'd ambushed his convoy.

"I want to go home," Riza managed to say, each word painful with how raw her throat felt.

"I can do that," Roy told her in a quiet voice. He took his long black jacket off and delicately wrapped it over her shoulders to shield her back. When she tried to stand up herself, he grabbed her hand to stop her and then swept her up into his arms. She felt so small in this moment, shame flooding her for how much she craved and needed his closeness and warmth, but then he held her tightly against his chest, his cheek pressed against the top of her head, and carried her into the light.

It didn't matter where he took her and it didn't matter in this moment who had hurt her. As long as she was with him, she was home and she could breathe again.


End file.
